Monday, June 28, 2010

Congressman John Kline is not a fiscal conservative. Conservatives wouldn’t continue to borrow against, and add to the United States deficit, especially for funding their own private partisan agenda. Yet John Kline continues to 'feed at the trough' of government waste for his own altruistic motivation.

John Kline has been in office for eight years with all the responsibility and authority that comes with his position. He would like us to believe he is all about stopping wasteful government spending but in fact, he’s part of that problem. While Kline has been asking us to prepare for the coming economic downturn, he hasn't bother to tighten his own belt...just ours. The message is clear, Kline can't walk his own talk when it comes to being a fiscal conservative.

Friday, June 25, 2010

Congressman John Kline voted against extending emergency unemployment benefits. As a result, 1.2 million people will lose their jobless benefits by the end of the month, joining millions of “99ers” who have already seen their benefits run out.

It wasn't really a surprise as about the only thing Rep. Kline votes to fund is the war(s) now over 600 Billion a year, and giving tax breaks to the wealthy. Unfortunately, with 14 million Americans out of work, Kline siding with other Republicans to make a bad situation worse isn't in the best interest of this country. In fact the only thing it furthers is his ideology which is not going to put Americans back to work or feed it's children or stop the worsting depression.

As Senator Durbin stated:

“There used to be bipartisan sentiment that when America faced a disaster, we would pull together… we have a national emergency with this recession and 14 million Americans out of work,”

John Kline and the House needs to provide us with living-wage jobs, here in our local community instead of funding wall street business and war profiteers. I'm outraged that John Kline is willing to take down the people of this country over his own party politics. You know John, there are republicans are out of work too!

For the millions unemployed, unemployment benefits have provided a way to keep a roof over head and food on the table in one of the worst job markets since the Great Depression. In essences, Rep. Kline has voted to continue the Depression.

Wednesday, June 09, 2010

For the past year, Congressman John Kline’s critiques of President Obama’s health care plan has centered on issues such as “death panels,” coverage of illegal immigrants, subsidies for abortion, and proposed Medicare cuts. Taken together, these criticisms have helped to build some opposition to Democratic initiatives, but they have done nothing to advance any alternative vision for reforming the health care system. In a nutshell, that is what’s wrong with John Kline stance on issues. He can go on for hours being reactionary and sprouting off on what’s wrong with health care reform (or minimum wage, or labor organizing, or public schools, or civil rights …) but offers no real alternatives, changes or solutions. Instead of offering constituents leadership with solutions, Congressman John Kline throws the health care bill to the floor like petulant child while screaming NO!

The Party of No Solutions!

In 1994 the GOP defeated President Clinton’s health care proposal and took back congress, only to spend the next 15 years with no resolve to the health care crisis facing our country. While in power the GOP has done nothing to help families and businesses get a hold of health care costs and bring them down. Instead of reform, the GOP along with Kline have screamed ‘death panels’ and plotted challenges against anyone who would even consider saying anything but NO to health care reform or changes. That 'NO' is their same message today.

The Party of ‘R’s (Repeal, Reactionary, Reject)

John Kline would have us believe that the broken health care system that Americans struggled with for the last decade is better than the current reforms . Like Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Joe Wilson, Congressman Kline offers only a reactionary rhetoric of 'NO' fueled with imaginary fears of the sky falling. Kline has rejected change, wants to repeal reforms and would have us believe partisan ideological hacks that only sprout 'NO'. The ‘real fears’ Americans have is with our Health Care crisis instead of the current mumble jumble of fears compiled by conspiracy tea baggers.

The Party of More NOs!

Kline had the opportunity to participate in the health care reform bill and shape the bill with real bipartisanship leadership but instead he continues the monologue of ‘NO’. If John Kline thinks that offering more of the same nothing is acceptable then he’s out of touch with the average American. Families and businesses want solutions over roadblocks, made up fears, and slogans of ‘NO’.

Friday, June 04, 2010

A StarTribune article that touts Congressman John Kline's record as working for cough, 'bipartisan' cough, agreement regarding the House Education Committee. If by 'bipartisan' the StarTribune means Kline wants to strip teachers from collective bargaining and promote charter schools that don't have the same standards as public schools, then yeah, I get it.

Kline who was named the ranking Republican on the House Education and Labor Committee has the sole goal of leading the fight against the Employee Free Choice Act, which seeks to make unionization easier and break federal controls over education with more failed charter schools? Charter schools are nonsectarian public schools of choice that operate with freedom from many of the regulations that apply to traditional public schools. In addition to poor academic performance, there have been many cases of financial and administrative failures. From USAToday: 'Independently run, publicly financed charter schools perform no better than comparable public schools, long-awaited federal data suggested Tuesday',

John Kline along with Mark Kennedy and John Boehner held meetings with Minnesota's school administrators to promote NCLB 'no child left behind'. Kline, who admits to promoting 'no child left behind', now says he soured on it after fielding persistent complaints from educators and parents....which just happen to coincided with Bush leaving office...hmmm...And even though he says he no longer supports NCLB, one of it's main tenet was establishment of charter schools encouraging states to hand over failing schools to commercial companies and nonprofit community groups that want to run them as charter schools. Stanford University's Center for Research on Education Outcomes, or CREDO, finds that charter schools significantly underperform overall compared to the traditional public schools they are supposed to improve on.

Once again, John Kline is still supporting failed policies to promote his own private agenda of braking unions and public schools. Instead of offering real solutions to education issues in America, John Kline would have us believe that less federal funding, more teacher oversight, less unionization, and more failed privatization will help. Kline hasn't been paying attention during his lessons on critical thinking regarding the failed lessons of NCLB and charter schools, no wonder NEA gives Congressman Kline an 'F' in education.

Wednesday, June 02, 2010

"...more and more Minnesotans share with me their frustrations over the increased partisan rancor in Congress..."

The Truth:

Four term Congressman Kline is as much to blame, maybe even more to blame, as his vote record shows...Kline has voted with a majority of his Republican colleagues 94.6% of the time during the current Congress.

What Kline said:

"I have been pleased to work closely with Democrats and Republicans on the House Armed Services Committee to pass the National Defense Authorization Act, the annual defense bill that serves as the budgetary blueprint for the Pentagon."

The Truth:

The budgetary blueprint that the House Armed Services Committee voted on shows close workings with military-industrial corporations and war pirateers. It included provisions and funding that the Bush, Obama, and Pentagon didn't want like $485 million for GE/Rolls Royce's engine that Kline included.

What he said: "Congress decides how to spend many of your hard-earned tax dollars through an "earmark" system that is both broken and corrupt. Any member of Congress can request funding for a project -- no matter how outlandish it may be."

The Truth:

Outlandish or not, Kline votes for earmarks all the time...for example last week Kline voted for an earmark from Todd Akins (R-MO), that gives the Navy eight additional F/A Hornets (for a total of 17 in the last two years which the Pentagon does not want!). Naturally, Boeing is one of the top contributors to John Klines's Freedom and Security PAC.